Connected
by Hyliaes
Summary: Commeander Shepard dies before Cerberus can revive her, changing the lives of her would-be crew forever. But even without the commander, her companions remain connected in a myriad of ways in the alternate universe without Shepard.


**Cerberus Research Station**

"Call it"

"No, it can't be"

"Ms. Lawson. Call it"

"No, I told you, we can fix her, we can't fail, billions of credits, two years of progress, it can't end like this."

"Miranda, if you don't call it, I will. She's gone. There's nothing we can do about it."

"I…damn…0600 hours. Shepard is deceased…Shepard is deceased"

Miranda Lawson repeated the words in her head over and over as she lay in her bed. She didn't understand what had happened. They had been working for two years on Shepard. Everything had seemed fine, progress was steady. They were less than a month away from waking her up and sending her off on her mission. Then today she died. Just like that all brain function ceased. The doctors were trying to find out what went wrong, but to Miranda it didn't matter. She had failed. Shepard was dead forever. Humanity was doomed.

**Illium, Dantius Towers. **

Nassana Dantius has only minutes left to live. Thane was going to make sure of that.

The assassin hurried along the ventilation shaft towards where he knew the Asari's office was located. He mentally prepared himself for the coming battle. He knew Dantius would have guards surrounding her. It was only a matter of how many and how defended they were. But Thane wasn't worried. He had taken on bigger assignments than this one, and he didn't expect to encounter too much resistance. He almost wised for a bigger challenge to serve as his last mission.

He quickly reached the vent above Dantius' office. He carfully looked down. Nassana was talking to someone, probably her guards. He listened closely to try and decipher what she was saying. He couldn't, but he estimated there were two, three guards defending her.

"Now or never," he said quietly to himself, and muttered a quick prayer. He braced himself, and dropped down silently to the floor. Quickly he snapped an eclipse merc's neck and shot another. It was over in a matter of seconds. Nassana gasped and fell against her desk.

Then it hit him. Déjà vu. He looked towards the door, as if expecting someone to be standing there. He couldn't shake the awful feeling that something was missing. He saw a flash, and a quick glimpse of a human woman, with full combat armor and bright green eyes.

It was over as suddenly as it began. He shook his head and made for his target. The Asari pleaded, offered him twice the creds he was going to make for this contract, but nothing was going to stop him. He readied his pistol, and shot her clean through the heart.

As her body slumped to the floor Thane considered his vision of the green-eyed woman. It reminded him of the flashbacks his species were able to experience with their eidetic memories, but the woman was someone he had never met, no matter how familiar she had seemed. Thane resolved to delve into the issue later, after he received his payment for the job.

He hurried out the building and into the taxi he had paid to keep waiting. As he rushed through the sky towards his temporary residence on Illuim, he was plagued by the feeling of something missing, or forgotten. It was the same feeling he had experienced in the office building. He felt as though he was going in the wrong direction, that something should have gone different after killing the Asari woman. Perhaps…he had intended for this to be his last assassination, but maybe that was not his destiny. Maybe this feeling was the gods way of telling him to continue.

He was interrupted from this thought as the taxi beeped for him to exit. He had not noticed that he'd arrived as the apartment building minutes ago. He got out and headed inside and to the elevator.

To his surprise his contact, a Turian, was waiting for him in the elevator. As they headed up the Turian quickly forwarded the credits to Thane's account. "I have another contract for you, if you're interested, Krios."

"So soon? Well I told you this was my last…" Thane stopped, and thought about what he had considered in the car. "Actually, I think I will take this one, my friend."

"Good. I'll forward all the information about this one to your omnitool." The Turian paused for a moment. "And Krios…be careful. This is a tough one. Apparently this human girl is some kind of master thief. Hard to find, harder to kill. Watch your back."

"Understood," Thane said. The elevator chimed, and as he exited onto his floor, he looked back. "What is the human's name?"

"Let me see here. Ah yes, Human. Female. Age 26. Name…"

The feeling of déjà vu came back to Thane as he heard the name…"Goto. Her name is Kasumi Goto."

**Citadel, Zakera Ward**

While the Drell assassin was preparing flight arrangements to the Citadel to kill her, Kasumi Goto was bothered by the same feeling of déjà vu he had felt. She had been walking through the ward's less fortunate districts, planning to pickpocket a Volus who she had seen run into a Quarian, when it first hit her. She had almost fallen to the ground as the vision of the woman in black and orange armor hit her. Ever since then, she had felt as though she was constantly in the wrong place, that she needed to do something, she just couldn't figure out what.

What I need to do, she thought, is find the right person to help me break into Hock's vault. Donovan Hock had her former lover and partner's greybox hidden inside his personal vault. In the greybox was some of the most valuable information in the galaxy…to those who could access it. As far as Kasumi knew she was the only person who could sift through Keiji's memories and find the info. She needed to recapture the greybox, and soon, before Hock found a way to decrypt it. Problem was, she needed a partner. Someone to sneak inside and help her break into the vault.

Little did she know, the person she sought was going to arrive soon in the least expected way.


End file.
